My love life's a soap
By Phil Taylor
Here's an image you will never see on Eastenders - tough guy Steve McFadden as a happy family man.
The soap bruiser poses proudly with his three kids for this exclusive News of the World picture and talks movingly about how the youngsters have given his life real meaning.
"I've been through choppy waters," he says.
And the 45-year-old actor adds with a grin: "Everyone's life's a bit of a soap isn't it—I'm happy with mine."
Steve is relaxing before his big EastEnders comeback next month at the cosy holiday house in Cornwall he shares with Matt, 19, Teona, seven and one-year-old Mollie.
"This is sheer joy. It was wonderful with two children but with three I feel even more complete," he says.
Steve is ‘sorted' now, but recently there have been more twists and turns in his life than an EastEnders plot.
After his relationship with long-term love Angie Bostock ended, he began a rollercoaster romance with co-star Lucy Benjamin (with Steve, right).
During one of the breaks in that stormy affair, he got back with Angie who became pregnant with Mollie.
"I'm not necessarily going to stop having children," he says. "I haven't finished yet! There is a big age difference between Matt and Mollie. I must have a long bit of lead in my pencil," he laughs.
Steve's been single since his romance with Lucy last January but he has healed the rift with Angie, mum of Teona and Mollie. He's also on good terms with Matt's mum, childhood sweetheart Sue Marshall.
Lifting giggling baby Mollie up in the air, he adds: "Angie and I are not romantically involved but we are close now and she's a fantastic mum."
And, despite having had his fingers burnt, Steve's still looking for love.
He says: "If the right woman comes along, I've got an open mind and an open heart. I'm not damaged goods."
Paralysed
Steve was enjoying his last holiday with his kids and his parents Barbara and Mackie before he starts filming the return of his character Phil Mitchell on Tuesday. They were staying in his five-bedroom house in Falmouth—and that's another tale ...
"My parents nearly died in a blaze in this house when a fridge caught fire while they were in bed," says Steve. "Dad dialled 999 and then busted two holes in a window.
"They managed to breathe through them until the fire brigade rescued them.
"I was so relieved they were alive.
"I've totally restored the house now and it's wonderful to enjoy a holiday here again with them and my kids."
Despite having 15 months off from the soap, Steve needed a holiday too. Just six weeks before he left EastEnders on Christmas Day 2003 he woke from an operation to find the right side of his body paralysed.
He'd been suffering from shoulder problems since an accident on his powerboat in Majorca six years earlier but after two ops to fix it doctors told him there was nothing more they could do.
Steve recalls: "I feared I would be paralysed for life. The doctors told me, ‘Whatever movement you get back over the next year is what you are going to have for the rest of your life. All you can do is hope it recovers in time'."
But he was just about to film his explosive exit scenes. In his final storyline, Phil went on the run after being framed by Dirty Den over a robbery.
Steve says: "I couldn't pick up a cup of tea, let alone throw a punch.The bosses wanted to cancel the fight scene because I still had 30 staples under my arm from the operation.
"But I insisted they went ahead because it was my swan song. They altered the script to make out Phil injured his arm in his escape from custody and I wore a sling.
"Then I attacked Dirty Den with one arm, punching him and throwing him down, and blanked out the pain." Steve began a brutal exercise regime to overcome the injury.
"I flew to Thailand and forced myself to swim but my right arm was so badly paralysed I ended up flapping around like an injured fish," he says.
"After three weeks I started getting some movement back. But it was only when I was able to pick up a kettle that I knew I was going to be OK."
Now Steve's got his strength back and Phil's itching to square up to his old enemies again.
"It's a shame Dirty Den was bumped off before I had a chance to get revenge," says Steve. "Now he's gone, Ian Beale better start looking over his shoulder. He better put his gum shield in."
Revenge
Steve decided to make his long-awaited comeback after a surprise call from producer John Yorke in January.
"I had no intention of going back till next year. I was even planning to fly to Goa this week on a month-long motorbike trip and had bought my ticket.
"But John and scriptwriter Tony Jordan are to TV what Sir Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho are to football, so I ripped up my ticket."
Barbara Windsor, 67, who plays Phil's mum Peggy, is another of their big signings and they're hoping to lure Ross Kemp back as Phil's brother Grant too.
Steve adds: "If I can return and help turn the show around, I'll be so proud.
"And next week I'll be back with both fists blazing!"
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